Location: Start and end in Chepachet, Rhode Island
Ride Type: Social Adventure Ride with special food stop! Gravel Ride for gravel bikes or road bikes with plump tires
Date & Time: 9am, Saturday, July 22
Distance: 78 miles
Price: Free, but we’re requiring NEER membership if this is your second ride with us. We’re providing food so a $15 donation toward food and expenses from non-members is suggested. Note the mid-ride food stop we’re providing!
RSVPs: Required, see bottom of page for RSVP form
Details
This scenic road and gravel ride takes cyclists on a beautiful journey in Rhode Island. We’re taking advantage of a route put together by Rhode Island cyclist Paul Davis, made famous in this GCN video with Jeremy Powers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiTc6KHckFk
We have not vetted this route, but we assume that Jeremy and GCN wouldn’t publish a bad route! The store they highlight in the video mid-ride is no longer in business, thus we’ve updated the route to get riders to a nice mid-ride hydration & food stop that WE ARE STOCKING at a campground.
Pace
This is a social adventure ride. Here’s how this works: everyone rides together for the first 36 miles. If you’re super fast, take it easy, enjoy some social time with people! We all roll together to the food/water stop. Enjoy some time at the campground, eat, drink, be merry. After the stop, fast people: go fast! Drop the group, have the fun you’ve been dreaming about. If you’re not up for a solid endurance pace (16-17mph avg is what the group would average if people were on road bikes on pavement, so that level of effort), you’re welcome to drop off the back of the group and ride your own pace continuing along the route.
We have a designated Super Domestique leading one group which will be rolling at a steady endurance gravel pace. If you can maintain a 15-16mph average pace on the road (on a road bike with drafting others employed) for 3+ hours, you have the fitness you need for this ride to roll with the group for the first 36 miles at least. This ride’s pace will be much less than 16mph (probably more like 12-14mph considering the dirt, and bigger tires of gravel bikes).
Please mention your pace in your RSVP if you think you’ll be faster/slower than the Super Domestique and be aware that there’s a chance you will be riding solo. We prefer if slower riders want to ride solo, you let us know and choose an earlier start time so that we can see you out on the road, it makes it safer to have some overlap out there.
Start, Distance & Estimated Ride Time
Please be ready to ride at 8:55am. We’ll start the safety talk at 9am and then roll out.
Parking
There is plenty of parking in town on the weekends as there are lots of places closed. We’re told the Town Hall parking lot is available and free all day on the weekends:
Town Hall - 1145 Putnam Pike, Chepachet, RI 02814
Please plan to meet up here for the ride start.
Route
The route will be emailed to all who RSVP no later than 7pm the night before the ride.
Route Notes
Elevation gain is ~3,600 ft.
We are expecting a lot of pavement and the dirt sections are unlikely to be overly technical given the route was ridden with road bikes and road tires for the GCN video. Since we’ve not done this ride before and it is an adventure, it seems safest to go with bigger tires. We suggest coming out with your gravel bike and 35-40mm tires regardless just because it’s nice when everyone is more or less on similar equipment. If you’re comfortable on dirt on your road bike, it’s totally fine to ride your road bike.
Food & Water During the Ride - Special Food Stop
We’re riding in an unpopulated part of the state. Therefore, food and water is very hard to come by. There will be ONE (extra fun) food & water stop on the route at a campsite, at mile 36. We are supplying fun food, bike foods, drink mixes, and the campground has water.
Please bring a minimum of 3 water bottles or 2.5L of water in a hydration pack.
Also, please bring all of the calories you would like to eat during the whole day. Yes, it’s a lot. Yes, bring a lot.
After the Ride
Bring a change of clothes so you can enjoy your drive home!
Want to demo ride a bike? Talk about sweet new bikes? Ride Headquarters comes out to these rides with demo bikes for those who are interested in demo riding and discussing awesome, super fun new bikes. Contact Ride Headquarters at connect@rideheadquarters.com.
Last-Minute Information
We will email all participants with any critical late-breaking news. Very, very last-minute news is found on our Twitter feed (shown on the home page of this website in case you don’t have a Twitter account).
Contact Information
Email - connect@newenglandexpeditionriders.com with questions about this ride up until 10pm the night before the ride.
CALL US if you need us to know anything just before the ride start or during the ride at 413-461-7433.
Don’t txt if you need an immediate response, all txt msgs go to our email that we aren’t checking if we’re in front of people at the ride or on our bikes.
Riding Rules
All riders are required to read and are expected to abide by These Rules. RSVP’ing to this ride indicates you have read and accept all of the rules. These make the ride safer and more fun for all.
Waiver
NEER requires a signed waiver before your first ride. Please fill it out online prior to your first ride.
If this is your second or more ride with us, our insurance requires that you become a member of NEER.
Proper bike & Equipment
35mm knobby tires are recommended, but skinnier are okay if you have experience riding dirt with skinnier. Wider tires are always nice! Tire choice depends on your riding skill set.
Clipless pedals and shoes. These are important elements of bike control. If you are an experienced cyclist who has used platform pedals and sticky shoes extensively, this is acceptable. Note that mountain-style pedals/cleats are significantly better than road-style. We strongly discourage road pedals/cleats on a mixed terrain ride. You can possibly get away with road pedals/cleats on a gravel (dirt road) ride, but not a mixed terrain ride.
A bike that’s in safe working order that is properly lubed and tuned. We’ll ask you to call for a ride or take an Uber home if you have a mechanical situation that will hinder the forward progress of the group by more than a few minutes or if you haven’t come prepared.
High enough tire pressure to prevent pinch flatting and burping your tires. We recommend about 80% of maximum rated tire pressure. Sometimes this is much too high, ask us if you’re not sure where to set your tire pressure. We like you to have more than enough air for these reasons:
We want to minimize flats on the ride; waiting for someone to change flats is not why we ride. We typically see zero flats on our ride. One of the primary reasons for this is due to higher than average tire pressure.
You can easily take it out, much harder to add it in.
Be sure you have supplies necessary for all common mechanicals including extra derailleur hangers, a multi-tool, quick chain links, tubes, CO2 or hand pump, etc. You are responsible for you and your bike.
RSVP to Participate in this Ride Now!
Please RSVP only after you’ve made sure you can attend. It is inconsiderate to RSVP prior to committing to attending since it affects the experience of the other cyclists in attendance. We understand that things come up last-minute. Be sure to email us if you can’t attend: connect@newenglandexpeditionriders.com.